ALL COWS EAT GRASS I started taking violin lessons when I was 5 years old. To me, that seemed pretty advanced.
I would drive with my mom from Ogden to Kaysville once a week, take out my quarter-sized violin and play songs that were mostly composed of open string bowings while I tried to keep the horsehair between the bridge and the fingerboard.
When I got a little older, those lessons became more advanced (I even learned where to put my fingers without the use of stickers!) and my instructor even tried to get me to learn music theory. This did not go well. My brain never grasped the complexities of it all, and I couldnt bring myself to care what key I was playing in. I could find a note and play it; that seemed good enough.
This is why the most recent video from 9-year-old music prodigy Dylan Beato is so remarkable to me. Not only can he immediately recite any note being played on a piano, he can listen to an incredibly complex chord, name it, pick out all the notes and draw it in music notation.
Dylan first gained notoriety on his father Ricks YouTube Channel back in 2015 when people couldnt stop listening to the little boy with a golden ear.
According to Rick, his sons exposure to music began in utero when daddy would play his son music while his wife was pregnant.
After he was born, Rick writes in the most recent video description, I would spend 2-3 hours a day interacting with him while we listened together. I also had a small keyboard on the floor so he could crawl over and make his own music whenever he wanted. It was never my intention to develop Dylans ear or make him into a musical genius, it was just me wanting him to experience all the music that was most instrumental in my musical development.
So are musical geniuses born or created? All I know is I was neither, and Dylan is probably both.
I would drive with my mom from Ogden to Kaysville once a week, take out my quarter-sized violin and play songs that were mostly composed of open string bowings while I tried to keep the horsehair between the bridge and the fingerboard.
When I got a little older, those lessons became more advanced (I even learned where to put my fingers without the use of stickers!) and my instructor even tried to get me to learn music theory. This did not go well. My brain never grasped the complexities of it all, and I couldnt bring myself to care what key I was playing in. I could find a note and play it; that seemed good enough.
This is why the most recent video from 9-year-old music prodigy Dylan Beato is so remarkable to me. Not only can he immediately recite any note being played on a piano, he can listen to an incredibly complex chord, name it, pick out all the notes and draw it in music notation.
Dylan first gained notoriety on his father Ricks YouTube Channel back in 2015 when people couldnt stop listening to the little boy with a golden ear.
According to Rick, his sons exposure to music began in utero when daddy would play his son music while his wife was pregnant.
After he was born, Rick writes in the most recent video description, I would spend 2-3 hours a day interacting with him while we listened together. I also had a small keyboard on the floor so he could crawl over and make his own music whenever he wanted. It was never my intention to develop Dylans ear or make him into a musical genius, it was just me wanting him to experience all the music that was most instrumental in my musical development.
So are musical geniuses born or created? All I know is I was neither, and Dylan is probably both.
